In retail, there’s only one number one. It’s not Wal-Mart or Costco, or even Amazon: It’s the shopper. To create high-profit retail experiences, you need to know exactly how your shopper thinks, feels, and acts at the point of purchase. Dr. Herb Sorensen illuminates today’s consumer behavior in the context of radical technological and societal changes that are transforming retail.

Building on these deep consumer insights, Sorensen introduces revolutionary new approaches to improving performance in self-service retail—whatever you sell, via bricks or clicks. You’ll discover today’s best ways to get the right items to the right customers when they want them… surpass the expectations of customers trained by online retail… own every consumer “moment of truth”!

New coverage includes:

Converging clicks and bricks into a super-high-efficiency retail engine

Building the “webby store”: visually managing every display like a web page

Bringing product and shopper together via optimized navigation and search

Table of Contents

PART I: TOWARD TOTAL CONVERGENCE OF BRICKS-AND-MORTAR AND ONLINE RETAILINGChapter 1 How We Got Here and Where We Are Going 15What Is Selling? 16Selling Requires a Salesperson, Not a Retailer 17SELLING: Focus on the Big Head of What the Shopper Wants to Buy 18Stop Shouting at Your Shoppers 21How We Got This Way 25 Early Shopping in America 26 The Birth of Self-Service Retail 26Can Selling Make a Comeback in the Twenty-first Century? 32The Four Dimensions of Purchasing 33 Now! Purchases (Advantage—Bricks Retail) 35 Surprise/Delight Purchases (Advantage—Bricks Retail) 36 Routine/Autopilot Purchases (Advantage—Online Retail) 37 Frustration/Angst Purchases (Advantage—Online Retail) 37Where Is Selling Going? 37The Selling Prescription 40The Shopper’s Ideal Self-Service Retail Experience 41What Does the Ideal Self-Service Retail Store of the Future Look Like? 42 The Dark Store 43 Step-by-Step 44The Ever-Changing Retail Landscape Favors an Evolving Retailer Species 46Review Questions 47Endnotes 48Chapter 2 Transitioning Retailers from Passive to Active Mode (by Mark Heckman) 49Passive Merchandising No Longer Suffices in a Shopper-Driven World 50The Journey to Active Retailing and the Five Vital Tenets of Active Retailing 51The Five Vital Tenets of Active Retailing 52Tenet 1: Measure and Manage the Shopper’s Time in the Store 53A Shopper’s Time Should Be as Important to the Retailer as It Is to the Shopper! 55Wasted Days and Wasted Nights 57Implications for Active Retailing 58Steps for Managing Shoppers’ Time in Store 58Tenet 2: Focus on the Big Head 59Implications for Active Retailing 61Retailers Attempting to Manipulate or Extend a Shopper’s Trip Are on a Fool’s Errand 62Steps in Managing the Big Head 63Tenet 3: Assist Shoppers as They Navigate the Store 63Mr. Retailer, Tear Down This Wall! 66Implications for Active Retailing 67Activating the Dominant Path 68Steps in Assisting Shoppers as They Navigate the Store 71Tenet 4: Sell Sequentially 71What Comes First, The Chicken or the Egg? 72Does the Order of Things Matter? 72Implications for Active Retailing 73Steps for Sequential Selling 76Tenet 5: Managing the Long Tail 76So Where Does This Leave the Tens of Thousands of Other Items That Populate the Shelves of the Store? 77“Nobody Goes There Anymore. It’s Too Crowded”—Yogi Berra 77Implications for Active Retailing 79Steps in Managing the Long Tail 81A Passing Thought about the Role of Displays in Active Retailing 82Closing Thoughts 82Review Questions 83Endnotes 83Chapter 3 Selling Like Amazon Online and in Bricks Stores 85Amazon Selling Online 87 Amazon Point of Focus #1: Navigation—Simple and Fast 88 Amazon Focus: Selection 89 Amazon Focus #2: Immediate Close 90 Amazon Focus #3: Affinity Sales and Crowd-Social Marketing 91 Amazon Focus #4: Reaching into the Long Tail 93 Amazon Focus #5: Info, Info, Info 94Amazonian Selling in Bricks Stores 95 Amazonian Bricks Focus #1: Navigation—Simple and Fast 96 Amazonian Bricks Focus: Selection 101 Amazonian Bricks Focus #2: Immediate Close101 Amazonian Bricks Focus #3: Affinity Sales/Crowd-Social Marketing 104 Amazonian Bricks Focus #4: Reaching into the Long Tail106 Amazonian Bricks Focus #5: Info, Info, Info 107Review Questions 112Endnotes 113Chapter 4 Integrating Online and Offline Retailing: An Interview with Peter Fader and Wendy Moe 115How Did the Internet Change the Study of Shopping Behavior? 116In What Way Are the Online and Offline Patterns Similar? 117How Are Paths in the Supermarket Similar to Paths Online? 119Can Online Retailers Learn from Offline Shopper Behavior? 119Tell Me about What You’ve Found Out about Crowd Behavior? 120What Have You Learned about Licensing and Sequencing—Such as the Purchase of Vice Items After Virtue Items? 120What Have You Found Out about the Pace of the Shopping Trip? 121What Have You Learned about Shopping Momentum? 122What Have You Learned about the Role of Variety in Shopping? 122What Have You Learned about Efficiency? Is It Better to Allow Shoppers to Get Quickly In and Out of the Store, or Should Retailers Try to Prolong the Trip? 123This Raises the Question of Whether Shoppers Are in the Store for Utilitarian Reasons Alone or If They Are Interested in an Experience. What Is the Difference? 124What Have You Learned so far about What Shoppers Are Looking for When They Go Online? 124How Do Online Retailers Use These Insights about Shopper Visits? 125This Captures the Whole Point of What We’ve Called “Active Retailing ” Online Is Leading Offline in This Area How Does This Come into the Physical Store? 126How Do Some of the Complex Forces of Shopping Behavior Play Out? Why Is There a Need for Better Modeling? 126What Topics Are You Studying Now? 127Review Questions 127Endnotes 128Chapter 5 The Coming Webby Store 129The “Ideal” Sized Store 135Review Questions 137Endnotes 137

PART II: GOING DEEPER INTO THE SHOPPER’S MINDChapter 6 Long-Cycle Purchasing (by James Sorensen) 141Higher Cost Leads to Anxiety and Indecision 142Longer Shopping Process 143Long-Cycle Purchasing 143 A Word about Building Desire 144 Wish 145 Want 145 Need 145 Got 146The Shopper Engagement Spectrum 147Speeding the Shopper along the Path-to-Purchase: First Build Desire and Facilitate the Tipping Point 149 Life Changes 150 Product Benefits 150 Ability to Pay 150The Shopper’s Journey 151 Early in the Shopping Journey 151 Educate 151 Late in the Shopping Journey 152 Validating Choice 152 Complete the Transaction 153 Mobile 153 Again, the Sales Associate Is Key to Closing the Sale and Completing the Transaction 153 Conclusion 153Review Questions 154Endnotes 154Chapter 7 The Quick-Trip Paradox: An Interview with Mike Twitty 155How Do You Define a Quick Trip? 155Why Do Shoppers Make So Many Quick Trips? 158How Do Pre-store Decisions Affect the Quick Trip? 160What Factors Do Consumers Consider in Deciding Where and How to Shop? 160How Do Consumers Think about Shopping Trips? 161What Did You Learn from This Research? 162How Could It Be that Even Warehouse Clubs and Supercenters—Whose Design so Strongly Encourages Stock-up Shopping—Receive More Quick Trips than Stock-up or Fill-in Trips? 164Given that Quick Trips Account for Two-thirds of Shopping Trips, How Can Retailers and Manufacturers Cater to these Shoppers? 165What Is the Quick-trip Paradox? 165Given this Paradox, How Can Retailers and Manufacturers Capitalize on the Quick Trip? 166Could the Shoppers’ Motives for Making the Trip Offer Insights into the Best Assortment to Offer? 168How Can Retailers Best Meet the Needs of Quick-Trip Shoppers? 168What Are the Implications for Retailers and Manufacturers? 170Review Questions 171Endnotes 172Chapter 8 Three Moments of Truth and Three Currencies 173Moments of Truth 177Seeing the Truth: Eyes Are Windows to the Shopper 178Reach: Impressions and Exposures 182Stopping Power (and Holding Power) 188Closing Power 189Three Currencies of Shopping: Money, Time, and Angst 190 Time 191 Angst: A Vague and Unpleasant Emotion 194A Complex Optimization 195Review Questions 196Endnotes 197Chapter 9 In-Store Migration Patterns: Where Shoppers Go and What They Do 199If You Stock It, They Will Come 201Understanding Shopper Behavior 204First Impressions: The Entrance 206Shopper Direction: Establishing a Dominant Path for the Elephant Herds 207The Checkout Magnet 210Products Hardly Ever Dictate Shopper Traffic—Open Space Does 211 Open Space Attracts: The Call of the Open Aisle 212 The Great Pyramids 215 New Angles 216Managing the Two Stores 219Five Store Designs 221 The Enhanced Perimeter 222 The Inverted Perimeter 223 The Serpentine Design 225 The Compound Store 225 The Big Head Store 226Where the Rubber Meets the Linoleum 227Review Questions 227Endnotes 228